02:02 am - Golden Globe SundayIt doesn't quite have the ring of "Super Bowl Sunday," does it? I spent it down in Belmont.

My cousin needed to get a Newberry book for a book report, so I recommended The Westing Game, which I had recently been talking about with someone for some reason or another. The San Carlos branch had only one copy, and I decided to pick up a copy from the Belmont branch on the way back because, hell, I hadn't read the book since I was a kid and I wanted to re-read it. It took me about four hours (by which time my twelve-year-old cousin wasn't even up to page 30), and it is still as fiendishly clever as I remember. I still remembered most of the big surprises, but I had forgotten most of the details, so it was still a good read. It blew my mind when I was a kid, but it all seems so obvious to my older, more astute mind...that already knows the ending. Anyway, if you're a fan and you've been wondering whether it holds up, the answer is a definite yes.

Then, the Globes!

I always forget how enjoyable the Globes are. Because they're so much less formal and stuffy, and they actually LET PEOPLE GIVE THEIR DAMN SPEECHES.

For instance, Sally Hawkins was so adorable! I have no idea who she is, but I kind of love her now. I like it when they get all emotional and flustered, it's cute. I didn't really have any desire to see Happy-Go-Lucky (I still have no clue what it's about), but I kind of want to see it now. Also because they used Kate Nash's "Merry Happy" in the clip.

Gabriel Byrne and Anna Paquin, really? Those were surprises to me. I haven't seen either show, but I would not have predicted that at all. They were showing the love to the new shows, I guess?

How great is Laura Linney? I haven't seen John Adams, but I think she's just so great.

It's still bizarre that Heath Ledger is dead. It feels wrong somehow, like we ended up in the wrong universe and there's another one where he's still making movies and the Joker shows up in the next Batman flick.

I need to see In Bruges. The library has it, but I have a feeling it's going to be hard to get this week.

Steven Spielberg is pretty cool.

Kate Winslet's second win was AMAZING. Oh my God. I have seen neither movie she won for and am not really interested in either one, but that freakout was awesome. "Oh God, who's the other one?" ahahahaha. I love that the first thing she did was apologize; that was absolutely hilarious. And she was NOT going to wrap it up, hee! Oh, awards shows.

Of course, the big thing tonight was BROWN FEVER WOOOOO. A lot more people are going to want to see Slumdog Millionaire now. Go see it! It is, indeed, good!

Anil Kapoor is such a spaz with his jumping up and waving his arms. I think he thought he was on ZEE TV or something. My cousin said he was representin' and that she would do the same thing, and so would I. INDIA IN DA HIZOUSE! It is sort of neat, the acknowledgement and attention this movie is bringing Indians. Unless everyone starts calling us slumdogs, in which case we will wrap them up in saris and throw them in the Ganges.

Here is the HFPA choosing the best score: "Oscar music, Oscar music, Oscar music, Oscar music, OMG LISTEN TO THESE INDIAN BEATS LET'S GIVE THIS AN AWARD." Also, as far as I know, A.R. Rahman's last name is pronounced like it looks. I have no idea why it would be pronounced "Roo-mun." What are you smoking, announcer dude and David Duchovny? Shahrukh didn't say it that way, and I think he'd know.

Shahrukh Khan was at the Golden Globes, WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT? Shahrukh Khan is a really big movie star who's been in some of the most popular Bollywood films of the last two decades. He's like the Indian Tom Cruise or something.

I can't believe they used such a spoilery clip! Grr. I suppose it's better than the clip they used for The Reader, which I think Kate Winslet was baffled and embarrassed by.

Now it remains to be seen what Slumdog's chances at the Oscars are. I haven't really seen most of the Oscar contenders besides that and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, which I did like.

To follow up a celebration of great art, I watched 2 Fast 2 Furious, which has to have one of the most ridiculous sequel titles in history. I enjoyed The Fast and the Furious, which I'd had a strange desire to see for years, and I'm making my way through the movies in preparation for the fourth one, which just removes the articles. This one wasn't really as interesting as the first one, which had pretty engaging characters, but it did have appearances by people I knew from TV shows, and that's always fun. Sucre! Harry Morgan! Ramon Prado! Also, it had one pretty ridiculous and awesome stunt at the end.

Fine, in order to restore my cred, I'll also note that I checked out Danny Boyle's first movie, Shallow Grave, the other night. It was certainly interesting to see the Ninth Doctor a decade younger and not being like the Doctor at all. And it was Ewan McGregor's first movie! Look at all that hair! I suppose it was a good movie, but it made me feel bad about everything.Current Mood:sleepy

You should see In Bruges, but I almost feel I should give you some sort of warning about the film. But I'm not sure what I would warn you /about/. It's a very different film than its advertisements, as it was sort of portrayed as a foreign-travel Pulp Fiction. Colin Farrell deserved his award for it.

Just...don't go into it expecting to laugh a lot. My reaction to its wins was mostly: Best Comedy or Musical category? Really? It's a comedy, but on a technicality, practically - the technicality that it's hysterically funny in a few places, I think. It's a thin line there.

Is The Fast and the Furious franchise the one that has Vin Diesel in it? I don't really care one whit about cars, but I care very, very deeply about Vin Diesel. If he's in them, I guess I should see the movies.Yes, but he's only in the first one and the upcoming fourth one.

In Bruges is an unusual film - go into it ignoring all the trailers and and your own preconceptions and you should be OK. I got free tickets to it at 2 hours' notice and went in not even knowing the title of the movie and liked it. Everyone I know (and I mean everyone) who went to it subsequently seems to have come away disappointed because it didn't meet their particular preconceptions.

Here is the HFPA choosing the best score: "Oscar music, Oscar music, Oscar music, Oscar music, OMG LISTEN TO THESE INDIAN BEATS LET'S GIVE THIS AN AWARD." Also, as far as I know, A.R. Rahman's last name is pronounced like it looks. I have no idea why it would be pronounced "Roo-mun." What are you smoking, announcer dude and David Duchovny? Shahrukh didn't say it that way, and I think he'd know.

My thoughts exactly on this. First off, my boyfriend hasn't been following movie hype this year so he's sort of like, "WTF is Slumdog Millionaire and why is everyone pissing themselves over it?" And I'm like, "It's Danny Boyle." And then he's like, "Oh."

But when I heard the music during the nominations I was like, "Winner. It's unique."

I also noticed when David Duchovny corrected the pronunciation of that name and then Shahrukh (whose name I copied and pasted from your spelling because I would butcher it) said it the first way. I was like, "Well apparently that's the right way." It's weird though, a lot of people don't get the concept of, "You pronounce it the way someone from the native language pronounces it." Trust me, I've sat through two college Japanese classes now. It's painful to hear people get creative with pronunciations when the teacher is a native speaker.

I want to see Slumdog Millionaire but I have this love-hate thing with Danny Boyle because as I understand it he sorta fucked over Ewan McGregor by casting Leo in The Beach and Ewan was like, "...the fuck?" It makes me sad because I loved Life Less Ordinary more than life when it came out, and I love Ewan, and I love Leo, but... but... ARGH.

That said, I'm sure I will see Slumdog Millionaire, because Indian girls are the most beautiful girls in the world and I get all giddy watching them in anything.

And that's the end of my ranty and pointless post.

Oh, P.S. I completely agree about Heath Ledger. Maybe he found a way to cross over to another universe and he's just making movies there because in that universe there's an even more talented Chris Nolan to work with. Yeah, that's the ticket. :\

I have this love-hate thing with Danny Boyle because as I understand it he sorta fucked over Ewan McGregor by casting Leo in The Beach and Ewan was like, "...the fuck?"Aw, that's sucky. I haven't seen that or A Life Less Ordinary.

I also noticed when David Duchovny corrected the pronunciation of that name and then Shahrukh (whose name I copied and pasted from your spelling because I would butcher it) said it the first way. I was like, "Well apparently that's the right way." It's weird though, a lot of people don't get the concept of, "You pronounce it the way someone from the native language pronounces it." Trust me, I've sat through two college Japanese classes now. It's painful to hear people get creative with pronunciations when the teacher is a native speaker.I'm really confused as to where the hell the "Roo-mun" thing came from. Who was saying that? WHY would you say that? INDIC LANGUAGES ARE PHONETIC, FOR FUCK'S SAKE. THERE ARE NO SURPRISES.

That said, I'm sure I will see Slumdog Millionaire, because Indian girls are the most beautiful girls in the world and I get all giddy watching them in anything.Hee. As I said in my post, I have an unusual relationship with Boyle too, just based on his movies, and I loved it. My favorite of his films, really, the one I enjoyed the most without qualifications or reservations.

The Westing Game! I LOVE/D that book! (I have reread it as an older reader, but not for a number of years) All my siblings love it and have read it a number of times, and passed on the love to numerous families of friends, too. The one thing we could never figure out is why our mom seemed to hate it. Every kid I know loved it when they read it but when she started reading it outloud to my younger siblings on my recommendation years ago she disliked it so much she quit and refused to go on. Oh well, her lost. I still think it's charming and clever.

Danny Boyle's first movie, Shallow Grave, the other night. It was certainly interesting to see the Ninth Doctor a decade younger and not being like the Doctor at all. And it was Ewan McGregor's first movie! Look at all that hair! I suppose it was a good movie, but it made me feel bad about everything. Oh, wait, I think I've seen this! Is that the room where they're all roommates and everybody is attacking each other with tools and things? It was on tv late one night when I couldn't sleep and just after I fell in love with Doctor Who and was in a mood to watch anything starring Eccelston. Yeah, it was not a feel-good film as I recall.

Gabriel Byrne and Anna Paquin, really? Those were surprises to me. I haven't seen either show, but I would not have predicted that at all. They were showing the love to the new shows, I guess?

I think it's because they've had success in movies, and award shows LOVE it when movie stars slum it on TV. It's like Default Winner Time. Which explains, in my opinion, how Patricia Arquette ever won an Emmy for "Medium". Because while I love "True Blood", Anna Paquin as Best Actress in a Drama? NO. And I've heard "In Treatment" is pretentious crap. So, hrmph! I'm sure you can guess why I'm a bit bitter.